In a flash

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Flash animations are frequently used as website doormats,
offering a quick promo for the site or the web designer's skills,
before you gain entry to the main event.

If you're stuck with a dial-up modem, Flash animations are often
just one more aggravation on a web seemingly designed for
high-speed surfers. But if you have a fast connection, Flash movies
add a little variety and spice to what is, for the most part, a
very static medium.

Of course, some sites use Flash for a whole lot more than a bit
of puffery. For example, you can see the funnier side of President
Bush (no, really) through Mark Fiore's political
cartoons, while the scatologically inclined will find amusement
at GibbleGuts.

If you come across a Flash animation that grabs your fancy,
Infine Capture Flash lets you save a copy for viewing at your
leisure. To capture a movie, right-click the Capture Flash icon in
the taskbar and choose Search Active IE page (the program works
only with Internet Explorer). You can watch saved movies with the
in-built viewer. Remember to keep in mind copyright issues when
you're gathering Flash clips.

Copy/Paste puts multiple Clipboards at your fingertips, instead
of the stingy solo Clipboard supplied with Windows. It's not the
most powerful Clipboard extender around but it has the virtue of
being free, which many of its competitors are not.

Copy/Paste provides 64 clipboards. Copy anything in any program,
and it's automatically copied to its own clipboard in Copy/Paste.
To retrieve a clipboard, pop open the Copy/Paste window, scroll
through the list and select the appropriate entry.

By enabling the Append option, you can have Copy/Paste add
anything you copy to the current clipboard, a handy way of
collecting bits of text from numerous sources and joining them.

Copy/Paste doesn't have a setup routine, so to install it, copy
the CopyPaste.exe file to a folder and then drag a shortcut onto
your desktop or Quick Launch bar. You may find it convenient to
create a Utilities or Misc folder with the Program Files folder for
storing programs such as Copy/Paste which don't have a dedicated
installation routine.

JustFreeGames is a freeware oasis for those seeking a little
entertainment on the cheap. Here you'll find an engaging assortment
of games suitable for the young and not-so-young, all completely
free.

Bombermania is a delightful, 3D version of the Bomberman game
made popular on handheld computers. In it, you're trapped in a
cartoon castle maze, full of dead-ends and deadly robots.

Drop a bomb at an appropriate spot and you can eliminate both
these obstacles. You get points for destroying the robots, and you
gain entry to the next level by uncovering a hidden door with a
well-placed bomb.

It's good, bloodless fun, but if you prefer games with a little
less death and destruction, you'll find those, too, at
JustFreeGames.

The Today screen on your Pocket PC doesn't have to be something
you slide past on your way to opening another program. It's quite
possible for it to be useful in its own right, offering more than a
reminder of an upcoming appointment.

FlashDash transforms your Today screen into a thing of beauty
and a fully working application. It lets you alter the entire look
of the screen using animated or static themes and adds numerous
components, including battery, memory and storage displays, a task
manager and a program launcher. Tabs provide quick access to the
original Today screen and additional functions. You'll need the
free Macromedia Flash installed on your Pocket PC to use FlashDash;
there's a link to it on the site.